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Video Captures Mattis Talking to Bolton: 'I Heard You Were the Devil Incarnate'

Defense Secretary James Mattis decided Thursday that the best way to break the ice during his first ever meeting with President Trump's new national security adviser John Bolton was with a joke.

"I heard you're actually the devil incarnate and I wanted to meet you," Mattis said in an off-microphone exchange that was captured upon Bolton's arrival at the Pentagon.

Bolton laughed and the two men entered the building.

In the days following Trump's decision to name Bolton as the replacement for outgoing national security adviser H.R. McMaster, Mattis has been doing his best to downplay notions that he is concerned about working with the hawkish former ambassador to the United Nations despite strong indications that the two men could clash over key issues like North Korea and Iran.